Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 11:14:37 -0800
Reply-To: BRENT CHRISTENSEN <bchristensen@INFOGENESIS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: BRENT CHRISTENSEN <bchristensen@INFOGENESIS.COM>
Subject: Re: Transporting baby solution
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
Sounds like a creative solution, but if I understand you correctly, your
daughter won't be able to see out the windows while traveling! This is the
part my daughter has always loved about riding in "The Vanagon" - she has
such a great view out the side and front windows. (I know you don't have a
rear D.S. window in an '99 EV though)
Brent Christensen
'89 GL Syncro Westy
Santa Barbara, CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Alexis Neely [mailto:legalex@YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 6:15 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Transporting baby solution
Thank you to everyone for your input on transporting our baby. We agree
that putting her seat in the front seat is not the best option. For the
record, we would not have even considered it unless we got the passenger
side airbag removed. Putting her seat in the passenger seat turned rear
facing would have been a good option if we could have figured out a way to
get the seat to lock into that position. Again, we would have removed the
airbag and we would have put her seat frontfacing, which would have made her
rearfacing, which is the preferred position. This would have actually been
a quite good option because we could have kept her rearfacing for the life
of the seat, whereas in normal position we must turn her seat frontfacing
when she hits 30lbs. But, we decided on a better solution, we think.
We tried the rear bench seat. This location did work well for her infant
seat, which is pretty small. It fit in quite nicely and was snug. However,
by the time of the trip we will be into the convertible seat, which is much
larger. The convertible seat just did not work in the rear bench seat. It
felt very ubstable. The rear bench is too narrow and the seat belts are
placed improperly for mounting the seat. If we were to use the rear seat we
would have to install a lap belt and do it that way I think. But, it just
didn't seem really stable to me.
So, we think that the best alternative is to place her seat in teh middle
where it would be if the bench seat were in the van. We will do this by
bolting two lapbelts into the four bolt holes that are used to mount the
center seat and threading both of those belts through the seat. This seems
like it will be very secure and we will also be able to use the tether that
comes with the seat for added security. We can place her seat rearfacing
this way and then when she is too big to rear face we can turn it around
front facing. We think this is the safest, sturdiest, and most convenient
alternative. Unfortunately, these winnebago seats just don't seem as if
they were made for carseats.
So, now we just need to find lapbelts that will fit into those bolt holes.
Any guidance in that direction would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Alexis
Alexis Martin Neely
Mama of Kaia Ray (11/2/99)
Wife of Todd Patrick (2/14/99)
Driver of 1996 GTI and 1997 EVC
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
[text/html]
| 
